Atlantic City to put it quite simply a bizarre place and here was Bob Dylan appearing there for the fourth time at a place he already played earlier this year, the Copa room in the Sands Casino. I left Philly in the middle or rush hour, miraculously didn't hit any traffic jams and made it to A.C. in the usual time: one hour flat. I strolled past the gamblers in the one arm bandits easily found the line to the Copa Room and wandered down it till I found my friends the Double-D couple just where they said they would be. Now the Copa room is pretty small with lots of tables and chairs and these booth-like lounge things which they keep reserved for the heavy gamblers who get comped to the show. They have some sort of seating chart and it takes awhile for everyone to get in. Sometimes it helps to tip the Maitre d' to get a better spot. We got a pretty good table a little to the left of the center of the stage and had a good 45 minutes to kill before show time. I spent it getting something to eat in the Casino (they give you passes out), and wandering the Copa Room in search of various RMD-ers though I didn't know what they looked like, and found the one who did give me a description, Kevin Reilly who as it happened was sitting at the table next to mine.

So right around 8 PM the curtain came up and there were the roadies tuning the guitars. About 8 minutes after, Dylan and band appeared and launched into a spirited "Roving Gambler," a totally appropriate song for the setting. Dylan seemed very loose and in good spirits smiling broadly. An okay "Mr. Tambourine Man," followed and then Dylan said hello to someone in the audience whose name I already forget and said he was the presidient of the International Bob Dylan fan club, and then went into the Stanley Brother's "Cold Walls and Steel Bars" and it was good too. The thumping rhythm he uses these days for "Desolation Row" came next and it was he was singing strongly and clearly and this was followed by the now familiar, clean picking of Larry Campbell introducing "Mama You Been On My Mind." A powerful "It's Alright Ma" came next followed by a nice gentle "Tomorrow Is A Long Time." And about this time we started looking at each other. Six songs and not an electric guitar in sight. Could it be?

Now let's backtrack a bit. When Dylan played the Copa Room at the end of his tour last February and people found it was a small 700-seat room, speculation ran high. Would he make it special? Would it be another Supper Club? As it turned out those shows ended up being typical tour shows, though a little shorter and fairly lackluster ones at that. Was this the night he would make up for it?

"Masters of War" came next. And then they started something unfamiliar, something I couldn't place, something almost jazzy. And Dylan said something encouraging to the band like "you got it" or something like that and stepped to the mike and the words didn't come. And the band kept jamming with Larry on steel and Dylan stood there still in a good mood, but whatever song it was, the words didn't come and it sort of collapsed, and he said, "Well here's my version of it," and went into a delicate "One Too Many Mornings." This was followed by a fairly roaring "Tangled," and they took off their guitars and left the stage, returning for a quick "Blowin' In The Wind." There were no band introductions in this show.

Now at some point in the show, (I forget between which songs) a woman jumped on stage to talk to Bob, and then she motioned to some other guy who came up and then they left. I don't know what it is about this particular room that makes people think they can jump on stage.

Anyway, "Blowin'" didn't have its usual long introduction where the band runs through and entire verse and chorus before Dylan starts singing, just a tiny little intro and he was into it. At some point during this song Bob's guitar tech snuck on stage and grabbed Bob's Strat from behind the drums. The lights went down after "Blowin'," and there they were back on stage again but in the shadows you could see this time they had electric guitars, and wam! into "Not Fade Away," and then real deja vu time, as all of a sudden there's one, there's two, no there's 50 people on stage just like last February's late show at the Sands. And Dylan is surrounded and you can't see him. But unlike last time, he didn't stay on stage and very quickly you saw a roadie take his guitar and lead him off stage and the song collapsed. End of show. Again.

Now who knows whether they would have done another song? But given the things that have been happening on this tour, especially in the last two weeks, it wasn't out of the question. While "Not Fade Away" has been the show closer for most of this year, in Philly he came back after it. So anything is possible, and given that this time around he was attempting to make the show something unique and special by doing the whole thing (except for NFA) acoustic anything was possible. But we'll never know.